A software application may create a log file to track activity and progress of the application and to report errors occurring during execution of the application. For example, a log file may contain information relating to an email software application. The log file may contain both successful and unsuccessful attempts made by the email application to send an email message. It may be useful for a systems administrator to efficiently access the information in a log file when analyzing the execution of a software application or when troubleshooting a software application. Log files may contain large amounts of information, for example thousands of lines of text. Often it is hard to find data. As a result, reading through a log file manually may be inefficient. Additionally, a log file may contain large amounts of irrelevant information. Thus, locating desired information in a log file may be difficult. A log file reader may be useful for reading a log file however the log file reader may only be compatible with a particular log file format. Creating a multiple log file readers using C++, Java, or Pearl for example, to be compatible with multiple log file formats may be time consuming and difficult to maintain.